Fire death toll hits 63; sheriff says hundreds still missing

The number of people declared missing in one of California's catastrophic wildfires has more than doubled to 631, as the struggle continues to contain one of the biggest blazes the U.S. state has ever known.

The revised official list of people unaccounted for, issued by the Butte County Sheriff's Office, leapt from 297 - a figure given earlier on Thursday - to 631.

At least 63 people have been confirmed dead so far in the Camp Fire, which erupted a week ago in the drought-parched Sierra foothills 280 km north of San Francisco and now ranks as one of the most lethal single U.S. wildfires since the turn of the last century.

Three more have died in the Woolsey Fire, further south.

Cal Fire said the Camp Fire had grown to 140,000 acres (57,000 hectares), but was 40% contained. He said authorities were making the list public so people could see if they're on it, and let authorities know they are safe.

Sheriff Kory Honea asked relatives of missing people to submit DNA samples to speed up the identifying of the dead.

Most of the town - almost 12,000 homes and buildings - has been destroyed, and an army of firefighters, many from other states, joined the struggle to contain and suppress the flames.

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The White House announced Thursday that it is still arranging details of his trip to California, but that visit people who have been impacted by the fires.

The US president initially blamed the blazes on state officials and threatened to withhold federal payments.

Rescue workers have been combing through the charred ruins of the town of Paradise a week after it burned to the ground in the Camp Fire in northern California, the worst in the state's history.

Meanwhile, hundreds of fire refugees are living in tents and makeshift shelters.

Mr Trump tweeted last weekend: "There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor".

The latest blazes have capped a pair of calamitous wildfire seasons in California that scientists largely attribute to prolonged drought they say is symptomatic of climate change.

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